Author: pokemaniacchris

Going to put that aside for one moment

So, I think because it’s just that time of year, I’m not seeing much participation or discussion on that last post of my create-a-Pokémon project thing.  In particular, a lot of the concepts we had earlier just haven’t coalesced into actual Pokémon yet.  The thought occurs that I just picked a really terrible time to try something that requires a lot of reader participation.  I want everyone to bookmark that post, and keep thinking about your ideas and everyone else’s.  Comment whenever you have something to say, and please do talk about other people’s ideas if you have anything to add to them!  I want to leave that project where it is for another couple of weeks, though; hopefully people will come up with more stuff in that time.

While that’s going on, I have something else to work on.

It really is past time I started ranting about Black and White 2…

What is your opinion on the twisted story of Amber, Mewtwo’s soul mate?

Disclaimer: I haven’t actually seen the Birth of Mewtwo, so this is all coming from someone who knows the story at second hand.

(For anyone who doesn’t know the story: Amber was the daughter of Mr. Fuji, the dude who runs the Lavender Town Pokémon shelter and headed up the team of scientists who originally created Mewtwo.  Amber had died as a child, and Fuji’s real aim in the project was to clone her; Mewtwo was just a gimmick to convince Giovanni to fund him.  Mewtwo’s telepathic abilities allowed him and Ambertwo to converse while they were growing in their pods, and the cloned girl was his only friend.  Unfortunately, while Mewtwo’s incredible powers kept him alive while he grew to maturity, Ambertwo died before she became strong enough to leave her pod.  Ambertwo encouraged Mewtwo to believe that life is something to be celebrated, but his grief at losing her should probably be taken to be at least partly responsible for his massive existential angst and his rather bleak outlook.)

I don’t think I’d call it ‘twisted;’ I’m not sure what you’re getting at there.  Sad, certainly; it reminds me of nothing so much as two sick kids meeting in a hospital ward.  I think that the story provides an opportunity to examine the theme of identity that would have been the central idea of Mewtwo Strikes Back if only the battles and the weird self-defeating ‘violence is wrong’ message hadn’t gotten in the way.  Poor Ambertwo seems to have all of the original Amber’s memories, so she theoretically has to deal with one of the same questions Mewtwo asks – “Am I Amber, or just Amber’s shadow?” – but her own childish innocence makes it a non-issue for her; although she insists that she’s Amber on the inside, she doesn’t really think the question matters and is happy just to be alive.  I think that in the end, after all the chaos and destruction of Mewtwo Strikes Back, Mewtwo finally comes to see things the same way.

The last person’s question got me thinking. How would you feel if pokemon included timed hits in its turn-based mechanics, like in the Mario RPG and Paper Mario series. I personally wouldn’t mind if it included the option to turn it off, but I’d imagine a lot of fans might find this uncomfortable. Your thoughts?

In case anyone doesn’t know what this question is talking about, ‘timed hits’ are a system that gives a boost in power to a move if the player manages to tap a button at exactly the right point in the attack animation.

It sort of has the feel of ‘change for the sake of change,’ which I try to avoid if I can.  You seem to be starting by asking whether it would make the game worse in any respect, which I think is the wrong way of going about it.  Start by asking what it does to improve the game.  If the answer is “nothing” or “very little” then trying to tweak it so it doesn’t make the game worse is a waste of time anyway.  If the best we can say of a change is that we “wouldn’t mind” then it’s not a change that’s worth making.

As to timed hits in particular… I think the main draw to including a system like this would be that it creates an impression of trainer participation in battles.  Your presence and your precise instructions, given as the battle unfolds, are actually allowing your Pokémon to be more effective than it would be if it were fighting on its own.

The downside is that we’re adding an additional dimension to the gameplay which requires completely different skills.  It raises the ceiling for the power your Pokémon are able to reach, but makes that ceiling easier for some players to reach than others.  At the highest levels of competitive play, it slants the game’s balance towards offensive strategies.  At lower levels, it makes things more unpredictable and random, allowing reaction times to influence outcomes at the expense of strategy.  You could include an option to turn the system off, true, but then you’ve got to use some kind of difficulty adjustment for the in-game battles to compensate for the fact that Pokémon with timed hits active are going to be hitting significantly harder.

The bottom line, for me, is that the only potential advantages I can see for this are in the way the game ‘feels’ and the way trainers’ relationships with their Pokémon are portrayed.  There are better ways of doing exactly the same thing without messing around with the battle system, which won’t run the risk of messing up the game balance.  It’s a mechanical change that doesn’t actually improve the game mechanics, so I’d be inclined to stay away from it.

I am still alive

To my astonishment I am still alive, after working security for a week at one of the biggest music festivals in my country.  I haven’t looked at my inbox yet, or any of the comments on the last couple of posts; I just wanted to let everyone know that I am here, mostly healthy, and will get around to it just as soon as I finish sleeping for twelve hours straight.

In the meantime, go and read this article.  Friend of mine posted the link on Facebook.  It has absolutely nothing to do with Pokémon, at all, but it is exactly the point I was trying to make when I defended PETA in this post a little while back.  It is rather well-written and, whether you agree with it or not, the ideas it discusses are relevant to anyone who regularly engages with fiction (that is to say, absolutely everyone).

http://gyzym.tumblr.com/post/39004853136/just-shut-up

Also happy new year.  May your new year’s resolutions briefly illuminate the bleak misery of your lives with a ray of hope before their inevitable failure causes you to descend back into the neverending drudge of existence in this cold universe.

Look, I don’t do happy.  It makes me ill.

Down to brass tacks

Okay; good.  I’m liking what I see so far.  I’ve decided not to create another poll at this point after all – I have a quiet suspicion the result would be a foregone conclusion.  Instead I’m just going to say that we now have some pretty extensive discussion of how the ideas of Fire and Water can work together, and that this should hopefully be a solid place to start from.  Now it’s time to come up with some more specific design ideas – start actually describing Pokémon in detail and talking about their powers, behaviour and appearance.

Here’s the deal.  I’m going away for work after Christmas and probably won’t have internet access.  I’ll still be in the comments tomorrow and on Boxing Day, but this is probably the last think I’ll post until after I get back, which won’t be until the 2nd of January.  That’s, like, a week of discussion time.  Here’s what I’m hoping people can do:

1. Read the comments on the previous two entries, and everything that’s been said there.  There’s some good stuff.  Use it. (Incidentally, my last entry, the summation of all the concepts I’d seen so far, has been updated with an 8th concept and a little extra on the 6th).

2. If you want to describe a Pokémon based on any of those concepts, or on something completely different that hasn’t been discussed yet, write up a short paragraph about it.  I would prefer that you keep any artwork to yourself at this point.  I don’t want people judging these ideas by the quality (or absence) of art attached to them.

3. Comment on other people’s ideas.  Suggest ways to improve on them, if you can!

Just to make that absolutely clear: after Boxing Day (New Zealand time, so that’ll still be Christmas Day for a lot of my readers in America) I am gone.  You’re on your own.  You’re all a clever bunch, though – right?  I’m sure you can figure something out.  I suppose I’ll put together another poll of some sort when I get home.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and all the rest of that stuff!

Have you played any RPGs other than Pokemon? If so, could game freak learn any lessons that are relevant to Pokemon by playing these RPGs? Also, would you recommend any of them to Pokemon fans?

Hrm.  Well, I’m a big fan of BioWare’s CRPGs; I’ve had a lot of fun with the Baldur’s Gate series, Neverwinter Nights, and Knights of the Old Republic.  I’ve also had some experience with Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls series, and have been spending far too much time lately playing Skyrim.  I think these games can potentially provide a lot of nice examples of how to tell a story through the medium of a video game, and how to craft a markedly less linear plot – with the caveat that what Pokémon is trying to do is, in many ways, quite different, in terms of both the overall tone and outlook of the setting, and the inherent requirements of the gameplay mechanics.

Yay Discussion!

Okay, I’m seeing about seven different concepts for Water/Fire dual-types coalescing here (there may be more floating around in those comments but some of them blur together a little bit at the edges).  I was going to throw in my two cents in the comments thread, but then again, that would get messy, and also it’s nice to have something still happening on the front page, and give the ideas themselves a bit of visibility, no?  Here are my thoughts on each idea that I can distinguish, then (labelled with the names of people who suggested them or developed them in some way).

1. Oil fires (- Graygriffin and Andrewq).  Basically, a Pokémon that is either based on an oil slick or something, or somehow uses flaming oil as a power source.  It has powers over liquid and water, but also produces fire that won’t be put out by water.  Might be interesting for something like this to have an ability like Water Absorb or Storm Drain, to result in a Fire-type with immunity to Water?  I quite like this; it’s a fun way of mixing the elements that’s quite different to my initial take on the combination.

2. Fire extinguisher (- Andrewq).  A Pokémon dedicated to fighting fire.  I’m not sure about using an actual fire extinguisher as a base, because that sounds like it’s pushing into Steel-type territory, but it would be interesting to look at a Pokémon that developed powers over Fire in order to protect itself (and others) since Fire Pokémon are normally all about aggression and destruction.

3. Furnace or boiler (- Jack and Thatswhatbradsaid).  A Pokémon that is in some way modeled after a boiler or some such, but indirectly, the way Heatmor is based on a blast furnace – most of its body is actually organic, but it has little resemblances in shape, temperament, and so on.  Personally, I always thought it was odd that Heatmor isn’t Fire/Steel, but if this thing comes out with both Water and Fire powers, that’ll be much more innocuous.  This concept would focus on steam, and the technological influences could potentially allow us to reference the massive importance of steam power to… well… everything since the industrial revolution.

4. Polar Pokemon (- DBurningham).  A Pokémon from a tundra or glacial environment that gets water for its attacks by melting ice.  I wasn’t sure about this at first because my initial thought was that it should be an Ice-type, but actually, this could be interesting.  I don’t think I agree with D’s suggestion of Snow Warning as an ability since something like this wouldn’t necessarily have cold powers (which brings up another interesting point, actually – whatever we wind up creating might well be the first ever Water-type without Ice attacks!).

5. Paradox (LeonardoRegulus).  A Pokémon that just plain flouts reality by taking in water, turning it into fire, and blowing it out again.  I’m honestly not sure what I would do with this, though I think it might work best with a more abstract or overtly magical design.  It could well be combined with a number of the other concepts.  More thoughts on this from other readers would be much appreciated.

6. Deep sea creature (- CultHouse, MaltbysFalcon, Chewiana Jones, Jack, Wearat and Adam Dreifus).  I’m seeing a lot of support and some quite varied discussion for some manner of deep ocean Pokémon.  I’m not wild on the idea of bioluminescence, because then there’s a danger of getting into “Chinchou and Lanturn, only with fire instead of electricity,” although I suppose there’s a lot of room there for aesthetically very different ideas.  This could be something that uses fire to keep itself warm in the deep ocean and is forced to release it explosively on the surface to keep itself from overheating, or something that lives in or around deep ocean vents or undersea volcanoes; Adam suggested, for instance, giant tube worms, a Cloverfield-style behemoth, or a whirlpool Pokémon that influences ocean currents by controlling water temperature.  I always like deep ocean Pokémon, we could certainly do with more of them, and I’m seeing a lot of interesting ideas in this vein.  I don’t think there’s much I need to add to this.

7. Hydrogen/Oxygen fusion (- Wearat).  This is… outside the box, to say the least.  Two Fire/Ghost Pokémon, one representing oxygen, the other representing hydrogen, which, when traded with each other (a la Shelmet and Karrablast) both evolve into the same Water/Fire Pokémon (referencing the creation of water by the combustion of hydrogen).  I’m not sure about Fire/Ghost for the two juvenile forms, since Ghost has a lot of weird connotations that don’t necessarily fit here (I’d almost prefer Fire/Flying or even Fire/Psychic, actually), and I really don’t know what to think of the idea of a… what would I even call that?  A conjoint evolution?  If nothing else, it’s certainly unique, and unique is always fun…

8. Lava and water (- Crazedgamer111).  A Pokémon that’s literally half-and-half – split at the waist (or even down the middle?) between a fiery, lava-influenced appearance and a watery, aquatic appearance, maybe with a ‘belt’ of stone where the two meet and the water causes the lava to solidify.  This works with the whole ‘mingling of opposites’ idea, though in a very different way to what I had in mind, and potentially suggests some interesting flavour.

So, yes.  Carry on.  I’m not sure whether to decide this with another poll or what.  If I do, I’ll certainly be sure to make clear in the post that there is supposed to be a poll, and that if you can’t see it something’s wrong.  Any suggestions on how to run this are welcome, while you’re thinking.

Okay, now let’s actually do something

So, there was a… shall we say… minor hiccup… where my second poll was inexplicably invisible to 90% of readers for the first two days, but I did eventually get a reasonable number of votes, and the consensus now seems to be for Water/Fire as the type combination we’re going to work on.  So, what’s next?

What I want to do now is come up with something that will make this Pokémon conceptually unique.  I’m not talking about a full design, or a piece of art, or an animal to base it on, or anything like that – just an idea for something that will make our Pokémon different.  Something specific enough to be able to say “yes; this is a good reason to make a Water/Fire Pokémon,” but general enough that it doesn’t tie us down to a specific physical design or battle style – that’s the next part.  For example, the reason I liked the idea of a Water/Fire Pokémon was because combining the two elements potentially allows a designer to reverse their normal relationship – in Pokémon we always think about Water defeating Fire, but Fire can also strengthen Water in a way by creating steam.  Something that focuses on that reversal somehow might be fun.  Feel free to tinker with that idea or look at it from different angles – or just come up with a completely different interpretation of Water/Fire.

If you have an idea you want to talk about, bring it up in the comments to this post – or, if you don’t have a Disqus account, stick it in my ask box and I’ll collect them all together in a post at the end of each day.  Once we have a few ideas and some discussion on each of them, I’ll put together another poll.  Er… hopefully this one will work.

Am I detecting a lack of interest, or…?

So, that second poll I put up two days ago has so far failed to gather as many total votes as any of the four top options did in the first poll.  I’ve also had no comments on it, and no questions about anything.  Er… am I to take from this that no-one’s interested in trying this thing anymore?  I can just, like, give it up and go back to writing articles.  Most of the stuff I want to work on would be maddeningly incomplete if I tried to write it before playing White 2, which I still haven’t done, but I could probably make up a couple of short things to fill the gap.

I mean, if the world ends tomorrow then this is all moot anyway, but on the off chance it doesn’t, some feedback would be nice.  Anyone?